Parties put women in back seat

Chris Johnson, Farrah Tomazin

Safe seats in the Federal Parliament are anything but a safe bet for women seeking preselection, with both major parties overwhelmingly choosing men to replace outgoing MPs in the electorates that can be held for a political generation.

The ALP and the Coalition each have 10 MPs vacating lower house seats on margins of 5 per cent or more, including Peter Garrett's seat of Kingsford Smith and Greg Combet's seat of Charlton.

The Labor Party national executive approved rank-and-file preselections for five safe Labor seats after the intervention of Prime Minister Kevin Rudd on Saturday.

But of those 20 safe electorates across both parties, five women are likely to be preselected as replacements - three in the ALP and two in the Coalition.

Advertisement

Under Labor's affirmative action, women must be endorsed in 40 per cent of winnable seats. The Liberals do not have quotas, but the gender imbalance is the subject of a review led by former senator Kay Patterson.

There are now four women in the 20 safe seats.

A source close to Mr Rudd said the national executive approved the rank-and-file preselections for all seats on his say-so. "There is no point saying we're reforming the party and not have rank-and-file preselections," the source said.

"Mr Rudd believes that as the outgoing member and as the former prime minister, Ms Gillard is best-suited to know the candidate best suited to represent the people of Lalor," the source said. "The PM is asking local preselectors to support Joanne Ryan."

Ms Ryan's preselection looks certain, given the withdrawal on Saturday of diplomat Lisa Clutterham, who admitted she had no connection with Melbourne and had not yet been a member of the Labor Party for a month. Health Services Union official Kimberley Kitching also withdrew and now backs Ms Ryan.

But Ms Ryan is one of just a few women Labor is choosing to stand for a safe seat being vacated.

But women have been chosen or are the frontrunners for preselection only in the seats of Lalor, Bendigo and Perth.

ALP national president Jenny McAllister said she believed there should be equal numbers of men and women in the Federal Parliament, but it was a question of sustained efforts and critical mass. "Affirmative action is 20 years in and it has made a huge difference to women being represented in parliament," she said. "The results are clear. Labor has more female candidates, more female backbenchers and more female frontbenchers than the Liberal Party. And we're a country mile ahead of the National Party."